Anything but clean,--anything but simple,--anything but what one is used to.
Some risk,--little comfort,--a total inversion of all accustomed habits,--a feeling of insecurity,--irritability,--a longing to be ashore; in short, a total _be-blue-devilment_ at times, with a few hours of pleasanter colour just to keep hope alive.
The ignorance and simplicity of some of the passengers are greater than might be supposed; one said the other day he supposed we had five hundred miles yet to go, and another asked me if America was mountainous.
26th. A tremendous wave broke over us, giving the ship such a shock as laid her down on her side. Great was the confusion; trunks thrown upon trunks, tables, chairs, all forced from their { 10} mooring, in spite of bolts and ropes; we were glad to find however that, excepting the fracture of glasses and crockery, no material accident had happened to any one.
About this time an account of each steerage passenger's stock of provisions was taken, and though but three weeks out, several were found nearly exhausted; so improvident had they been.
The following list of sea stores is recommended as sufficient for a steerage passenger.
42 lb. Beef or Pork. 56 lb. Cabin bread (biscuit). 14 lb. Flour. 7 lb. Cheese. 4 lb. Butter. 1 lb. Coffee (ground). 1/2 lb. Tea. 10 lb. Sugar. 1/4 lb. Pepper. 1 lb. Salt. 7 lb. Split Peas. Bottle of Mustard, about 1s. 6d. 100 Eggs. 2 Bushels of Potatoes. A few red Herrings. 2 Quarts of Vinegar. { 11} 4 Dozens of Porter. 1 Gallon of Spirits. Some Carrots, Turnips, and Cabbages. 2 lb. Soap. Some pieces of Tobacco-pipe Clay, which will be found to rub well with sea water in cleansing the skin. A Tin-pot with cover, in shape like a coffee boiler, with a hook at the side to hang upon the bars of the Caboose grate. Crockery, Spoons, &c.
A passenger provided as above will not experience want in any common passage, and indeed there are some articles with which he may dispense; as, for example, the Porter; and others he may lessen, as the Potatoes _perhaps_. With respect to medicine, it may be as well to provide some Epsom salts and magnesia, and a few lemons will be found highly grateful; otherwise the ship always carries a chest containing the common remedies.